A NEW CHAMAESYCE FROM THE FLORIDA KEYS 

 John K. Small 



The oolite of the lower Florida Keys supports several endemic 

 species of Chamaesyce, discovered there in the past decade. 

 These are very sharply defined species with affiliations in the 

 flora of the Bahamas, rather than in that of the Florida peninsula. 

 An additional species is rather wide-spread in the pinelands of 

 several of the islands. It may be named and described as 

 follows : 

 ^ Chamaesyce keyensis Small, sp. nov. Plant erect, the stem 

 usually branched at the base and above, woody, like the branches, 

 pale, sometimes gray, finely pale-pubescent, the branches strict, 

 erect or nearly so, leafy: leaves opposite; blades elliptic-ovate to 

 elliptic, oval, or ovate, 3-9 mm. long, obtuse, entire, minutely 

 pubescent, especially beneath, rounded at the base, short- 

 petioled: involucre turbinate, a little over i mm. long, stout- 

 peduncled, finely pubescent; glands transversely elliptic, 0.5 mm. 

 wide; appendages white or pinkish, about as wide as the glands, 

 undulate or crenulate: capsule globose-reniform, about 2 mm. 

 wide, finely pubescent: seed ovoid, nearly i mm. long, slightly 

 transversely wrinkled. — Sand-dunes and pinelands, lower Florida 

 Keys. 



Like its closest relative, Chamaesyce scoparia, C. keyensis is an 

 erect woody stemmed plant with numerous leaves. The leaves, 

 however, are veiny and pubescent and not parchment-like and 

 glabrous. The involucre is turbinate and pubescent instead of 

 hemispheric-campanulate and glabrous, while the gland-append- 

 ages are not as long. The capsule is globose-reniform instead of 

 globose-ovoid. The type specimen, from pinelands on No 

 Name Key, Florida, in the herbarium of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, was collected by John K. Small, February 4, 1926, 7439. 

 ^' New York Botanical Garden. 



BOOK REVIEW 

 The Flora of the Chicago Area* 



We have attained to a new standard in the publication of local 

 floras. From the old-fashioned, dry-as-dust list of scientific 



* An annotated flora of the Chicago area, with maps and many illustrations 

 from photographs of topographic and plant features, by H. S. Pepoon, B.S., 

 M.D., head instructor in botany and agriculture, Lake View High School. 

 Pages xxii + 554. Published by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, 1927. 

 $3- 50. 



